President Of Colonial Dames Group

April 05, 1986|By Kenan Heise.

Bertha Alling Brown, 79, a lifelong resident of Lake Forest, was president of the National Society of Colonial Dames in Illinois. She led the organization in its effort to restore and move the Widow Clarke House, Chicago`s oldest structure, back to the area of Michigan Avenue and 18th Street, where it was built in the late 1830s.

Services for Mrs. Brown will be held at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in the First Presbyterian Church of Lake Forest, 700 N. Sheridan Rd., Lake Forest. She died Wednesday in Lake Forest Hospital.

Mrs. Brown was the granddaughter of William T. Baker, the first president of the Chicago Board of Trade. Her mother, Bertha Baker Alling, was a painter and her father, Van Wagenen Alling, was chairman of Alling Construction Co. of Chicago.

After graduating from Bryn Mawr College, she worked as the Art Institute`s travel manager for several years, arranging tours.

She was married to the late Charles Henry Brown Sr., president of Brown Manufacturing Co. and an investment counselor.

Mrs. Brown served as president of the English-Speaking Union of Chicago and was on its national board. And she was president of the Contemporary Club of Chicago.

As president of the Illinois Colonial Dames, she took as a special project restoring the Clarke House. She lobbied both Mayors Michael Bilandic and Jane Byrne. The house needed to be hoisted in the middle of the night over the State Street ``L`` track on the South Side. Mrs. Brown went and photographed the move. The Colonial Dames are committed to continuing to support the house, originally owned by a hardware store owner, as a public center for Chicagoans.

Survivors include two sons, Alling Christian Brown and Charles Henry Brown Jr.; and two grandsons.